The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-09-29

10 pAOPCI 81" AOSAoAANOS
when it discards hot-headed and ire
sponsible leadership and follows wise,
conservative counsels.
It is true that Gin the heat. of the
conflict" labor has often allowed itself
to be betrayed into acts of violence
unlawful and reprehensible. 1t is
likewise true that such acts of violence
have been too frequently consequent
upon a cold and heartless oppression
on the part of capitalists. The law
rightly protects and society justly ap-
proves combinations Of capital. So,
also, ought combinations of labor to
be protected by law and approved by
society.
While workmen have occasionally
combined for centuries, they have all
along and everywhere until within
the latter half the nineteenth century
been the object Of severe legal penal
ties and any member of a combina-
ton was liable to Indictment and
prosecution for conspiracy under the
common law. At present, in most
civilized countries, trades-unions are
not only not restricted by lew, but are
positively encouraged. This new &C
QUESTION of a just right is not infre-
quently abused most shamelessly, by
incompetent or improper leadership.
And this abuse damages the cause of
the laborer intellectually. The
sympathy Of the American people is
with the laborer and will continue to
be with him, so long as his demands
are just and his acts are discreet. This
sympathy will be alicnated the moment
he attempts to interfere with Individual
liberty or with the absolute right to
freedom of contract, which every
man, under the constitution possesses,
and of right ought to possess.
If a man, or a body of men, choose
to quit work, whatever may be thought
of their wisdom, they are entirely
within their rights. But they must
not forget to respect the rights Of
others. They ought not to compel a
fellow laborer who wants to work and
needs the product thereof, to quit
work either by direct violence or by
indirect intimidation.
When a mar is willing to work for
a sum agreed upon, he ought not to be
restrained by outside influences. If
he is able and willing to work, he
should have the fullest liberty to do
so wherever he pleases, whenever he
pleases, at whatever rate Of speed he
pleases and at whatever rate of wages
he chooses to contract for. On the
other hand, if he wishes to quit work
either alone, or in concert with others,
that is his choice, but this choice must
not dominate or intimidate the choice
of another. He who submits to such
domination or intimidation, bows a
servile neck to a yoke of slavery more
real and CALLING than any endured by
feudal serf or negro slave. Imay not
stop to argue the methods in frequent
use by labor combinations. Whenever
they resort to violence or intimidation
to carry out their designs, they put
themselves beyond the pale of good
citizenship and forfeit their title to
the sympathy Of society. Any man
may join a combination. It is his right,
if he chooses, but no man is compelled
to join and no man who obeys the
laws and provides for himself, his
wife, and his children, ought to be
forced by his neighbors to work when
he does not like to work, or to stop
work when he wants to work. If
labor is not free to this extent, in this
proverbially free country, then it is
high time we had another emancipa-
ton proclamation.
In what has just been said it is not
the purpose Of the writer to declaim
against the feasibility or ACCESSIBILITY
Of strikes under circumstances requir-
ing it. The right to strike is con-
coded, where it is conducted with a
due regard to personal and property
rights, where coercion and the destruc-
ton of property is not resorted to.
However, the end sought by strikes
would most generally and certainly be
attained by Boards of Arbitration, as
we have them in the United States ;
OF by Boards of Cancellation, as. they
have them in the British Isles or by
Conres1s de Prud-hommes, as they have
them in France. Too often the strike
ends without accomplishing its pur-
pose, and in the rare cases in which
the purpose is accomplished, there is
small compensation for the privations
endured. The case is not unfrequently
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